Is Julien the right coach?

[RJP]

This is what the Gazette quoted Julien as saying:

"We played well enough to win in Florida, but we lost on a fluke goal," Julien said. "We played well for two periods in Tampa and then we panicked in the third. And Saturday night in Ottawa, we made some mistakes and they cost us."

"If we win against Atlanta, everything will be allright again"

Sounds to me that this coach accepts mediocrity. He does not seem to understand that the important question is: Why? Why could we not score the tying goal against Florida despite outshooting them, could we have done anyting different given the circumstances? Why did we panick in the 3rd against Tampa and embarass ourselves and our fans with that inexcusable display of "who cares" attitude. Why did we make the mistakes against Ottawa? If he isn't aware that he is in control of the players effort and that his lack of demand for intensity for 65 minutes has resulted in several losses, then he should be coaching elsewhere, not in the NHL, where you need every coaching tool at your disposal. Whether it be time-outs, benching, call-ups, change of strategy within games, motivational rants, whatever!!

The fact is, the players are sensing his personality and, as a result, the effort is not there consistently. When a team is talently challenged like the Habs are, a coach's personality must reflect on the team. I am so tired of watching games where we are always out. Out-hustled, out-hit, out-determined, out-shot, out-played.

4 points to 9th place Julien!!!, and you think 1 win will make everything allright again? Find every excuse you want Julien, and come April habs fans will be looking to support one of the other Canadian teams. Lose every game if we have to, but lets get the effort and team-toughness we had against Boston despite the 1-0 loss.

Gainey, wake-up, phone Larry. It's not too late.

[Habs77]

Oh please, here we go again with the anti-CJ campaign... after 3 losses. :eyes:

He's right, it's just 3 games... one of which they outshot the other team 41 to 20.

The last two were more brutal, still it's just two games.

And losing Souray has a lot to do with it.

He's made line changes, he isn't panicking...

[Leafs Suck]

Larry Robinson is the right coach, not Claude Juilen

He'd be an ok assistant... but Big Bird needs to take over this team...

[Habby1197]

CJ has taken our 2.85 team GAA from 2002-2003... and made it 2.28. We're letting in 0.57 goals per game less than last year... That's 47 goals total over 82 games, pretty amazing turn around.

[Edited on 2004/2/17 by Habby1197]

[huzer]

Yup, the Habs have lost 3 games in a row, time to dump Julien. Then next week, the Habs win three in a row, and they're off to the Cup finals and Julien gets the Adams. Some fans of this team sure are a fickle lot.

[simonus]

let us not pretend that this is just about the three game losing streak... look back before the allstar break at those games against chicago and pittsburgh. Sure, we won those games but we sure did make it look difficult. Anybody who saw those games know that against even slightly better teams (or just slightly better goalies) we would have been majorly screwed. One can make quite a legitimate argument that mediocrity is becoming the standard in montreal.

It's good to see Julien shaking up the lines, but we have seen this year his seeming inability to rethink strategies in-game. As to whether to call up Mr. Robinson - that could easily be as unfair as it was to call up Mr. Julien last season. The habs have announced themselves dedicated to long-term success and robinson will still be available in the offseason. If Julien is unable to maintain the team's forward motion, then we can get larry.

[Edited on 2/18/2004 by simonus]

[PMAC]

Excuse me, but because Julien is trying to calm the players and not get them too tense, he accepts mediocrity?

Have you ever coached a team? The coach is not in absolute control, although he is responsible. A good coach tries to keep the players on an even keel, not too low after losses, not too high after wins. This is especially necessary in Montreal where fans and media tend to go beserk during a loosing streak.

It should be obvious that Julien has control of this team. Everytime he sits a player, that person comes back and plays better.

And could we please stop the Larry Robinson behind the bench is going to save the franchise crap.

:hlogo:

[Toren]

Julien is the right coach for this team for four big reasons.

1) His defensive system allows a team like ours that doesn't quite have enough offensive kick to compete in the NHL and compete for a playoff spot. Having a top goalie helps, too.

2) He is an excellent teacher to the younger players. You guys wanna go younger, well this is the guy to do it. Plus, he knows a lot of the young players extremely well even before he got the job. He know how to push them, and what to expect out of them.

3) He's got a great eye for talent in players. Look at Sheldon. Julien gave Souray some chances to play big minutes on the top pairing and be a staple on the 1st PP unit. He's good at giving players chances and watching them succeed.

4) Claude Julien is one of the smartest coaches in the game right now. It's been said that CJ is the smartest coach the Habs have had in since Lemaire, and that's a huge compliment.

Just as you want the young players to grow and mature, so must Julien. He's just coming to a year in this league, and so far, he's done a good job. He wasn't given a team that should make the playoffs. We were ranked by The Hockey News as the 3rd worst team in the Eastern Conference. Well, who's in 7th place now? If Bob Gainey likes him, then he's passed the hardest test of all.

Cut the guy a break. He already looks like Bill from "King of the Hill"

:ghg:

[Edited on 2004/2/21 by Toren]